There was just one NCAA Division I beach volleyball match on Tuesday’s scoreboard, but it was a rather significant one involving a Pac-12 showdown between #1 USC and the Cal Golden Bears, who were one spot out of the top 15 in the latest AVCA polls.
The USC women, the defending national champions, were dominant in the match. They didn’t drop a single set on the day, and were only pushed to extra points once – at the 2 line, where the score went to 22-20.
After their formal dual match, the two teams played a three-bracket round robin tournament. Teams were separated into gold, silver, and bronze brackets of 4 pairs each. The winners of each ‘semi-final’ (opening round game) advanced to the bracket final, with the exception of the silver bracket where USC’s Terese Cannon and Nicolette Martin did not play against teammates Abril Bustamante and Joy Dennis.
In the gold bracket, USC’s #1s Kelly Claes and Sarah Hughes defeated Cal’s #2s Grace Campbell and Olivia Rodberg. Claes and Hughes then played teammates Sophie Bukovec and Ellie Wheeler, typically the Trojan 3s, in a championship, and came out again with another straight-set sweep.
For Claes and Hughes, that makes now 94 consecutive NCAA game won as a pair, on top of a 47-straight streak for the Trojans as a team.
Video highlights below:
Full Tuesday, March 28th, 2017 Scoreboard Below
Winning Team | Losing Team | Score | Winning Team Recap | Losing Team Recap |
#1 USC | Cal | 5-0 | Link | Link |
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